Stories...Set to Music

Are you one of those people where you need music: everywhere you go, with everything you do, and constantly at your fingertips?

I am one of those people. Everywhere I go, whether it's to school, on a long trip or when I know I'll be waiting a long time...I need music with me. I can't live without it!

Perhaps it's because of the fact that I now own an iPod Nano, or an iPod of any kind for that matter. Up until this year I had yet to buy any mp3 player, therefore having to rely on my CD player or stereo to feed my addiction if you will. Now that I've entered the twenty-first century I've found that I'm listening to music more often than before.

Even my brother has noticed a change. In his words "no one listens to their iPod as much as you do." Maybe he's right, but what can I say? I love the music that's on it! I could never see myself tiring of each song. Every time I listen to it, it somehow seems like I'm hearing it for the first time, or I've picked up on something I never knew before.

Or perhaps that fact goes along with my writer's nature of visualizing the stories behind each song. To help you understand what I'm getting at - and perhaps get inside my head! - I'll give you an example. Bye, Bye by Jo Dee Messina. This song came out in 1998 and it has been one my favorites since the beginning. The plot of the song, so to speak, is that of a young woman telling her husband/boyfriend that she's tried of him straddling the threshold of him trying to decide if he wants to commit to their relationship, or abandon it.

So what's the story I visualize behind this song? It is that of the young woman walking around an abandoned - and invariably old - house with empty rooms, crumbling plaster, sheet draped furniture and fading wallpaper. For me, the house symbolizes what their relationship used to be. When it had thrived the house was beautiful and un-dilapidated. But now that she's said goodbye to him the house has fallen apart around her, and she's walking its halls, reminiscing about what used to be. So in reality - or in my mind anyway - the song is looking at a past relationship that has crumbled, not a relationship in the now.

Whether that made sense to you or not really isn't the point. After all, there are probably a million ways of looking at that song. I've just offered up to you a tiny sliver of that million. Then what was the point of telling you that you ask? Well, it's to show you that each song has a deeply vivid and imaginative story behind it. Whether it's blatantly clear from the lyrics, such as Martina McBride's powerful song A Broken Wing, or whether it's left to our minds to weave a story, such as with Jo Dee Messina's song Bye Bye.

The potential for every song to be a short story within our minds, per se, could quite possibly be the main reason for me yearning for music wherever I go. As a natural writer, I'm always visualizing in my mind. Even with songs that I've heard for the first time. Then, as I become more familiar with them, like reading further into a great novel, those stories take on shape, color and form.

I can't say that any of the songs I've heard have inspired my short stories, but there have been many songs that I've woven into them. Many of you are familiar with this already, but historic houses (16 to 1800's) are what really inspire my stories. Songs are just another part of the bigger picture.

Reading this, you might be asking. So...what kind of music do you listen to anyway? Primarily I listen to 90's country music, but I also listen to contemporary country music, older country music, and 80's and 90's rock. I know, it's not a horribly expansive and open-minded range, but in my defense an awesome Internet radio site called Pandora has cracked open my once narrow mind and filled it with many different musical styles I'd never thought I'd like. For instance Patty Loveless and Lorrie Morgan are now among my favorite artists. I've also found a new favorite song: Restless Heart by Peter Cetera. To anyone who loves 90's rock I encourage you to check it out. It's been repetitively stuck in my head!

With all of this, you might be wondering, does she take a writer's approach to everything? Yes! I do! Like I said before, I harbor an extremely dominant writer's nature. It sits at the helm of everything I do. But I believe it's for the better. When I think deeper beyond a song's lyrics, to me, that's when the song really comes to life, and when the artist has achieved what they had started out to do when first recording it.

There's one more aspect to songs that I'd like to share with you. Don't we all just have those cluster of songs, per se, that we fall back on? Whether we're having a bad day, a good day, a stressful day, an easy day or a taxing day? There the ones that we listened to from the beginning, the ones that we never tire of. Perhaps it's our familiarity with them, or the stories our minds have painted of them, or perhaps , like a favorite pair of jeans, we just find them to simply define a part of us. Whether we can explain it or not.

For me, Bye, Bye has always fallen into that category. Along with Reba's songs Fancy, and The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia. Some other's would be How Long Gone by Brooks & Dunn and When I Said I Would by Whitney Duncan. All of these songs invariably lift my spirits. I feel the oppressiveness of my bad day falling in hapless shards around me. I'm either swept up in the song's music, visualizing its story, or simply closing my eyes and listening to the words. Much as I'll do when I'm reading or writing. Everything else will fall away and my mind will focus solely on the song, the story or what I'm writing.

What effects do songs have on you? Next time you're listening to your favorite song, or songs, take note on the effects they have on you. You just might be surprised!